NTSB Identification: IAD02IA046

Scheduled 14 CFRPart 121 operation of Air Carrier ATLANTIC COAST AIRLINES (ACA) (D.B.A. DELTA CONNECTION)

Incident occurred Thursday, May 02, 2002 at ATLANTIC CITY, NJ
Aircraft: Fairchild Dornier 328-300, registration: N429FJ
Injuries: 36 Uninjured.

This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors. Any errors in this report will be corrected when the final report has been completed.

On May 2, 2002, at 0830 eastern daylight time, a Fairchild Dornier 328-300, N429FJ, operated by Atlantic Coast Airlines (ACA) d/b/a Delta Connection flight 6110, was not damaged after the crew reported a strong odor of smoke in the cockpit. The captain declared an emergency and landed without incident at Atlantic City International Airport (ACY), Atlantic City, New Jersey. The certificated airline transport pilot captain, commercial rated first officer, flight attendant, and 33 passengers were not injured. An instrument flight rules (IFR) flight plan was filed for the flight between Piedmont Triad International Airport (GSO), Greensboro, North Carolina, and La Guardia Airport (LGA), New York City, New York. Instrument meteorological conditions prevailed for the flight conducted under 14 CFR Part 121.

During an interview, the captain and first officer both said that they were established on a published arrival procedure into La Guardia and were about 20-30 miles east of Baltimore, Maryland, when air traffic control (ATC) instructed them to descend from 27,000 feet to 22,000 feet. During the descent, they began to smell a strong odor in the cockpit, which they described as something electrical burning. They did not know where the odor emanated from, and could not confirm that there was any smoke associated with the odor.

The odor dissipated, but returned just as strong a few minutes later. At this point, the crew said they donned their oxygen masks.

DO-328 JET

According to the captain, he thought that there was an in-flight fire and immediately declared an emergency. Shortly after declaring the emergency, he said that the air data computer (ADC) #1 and #2 screens displayed red "x's", and the information of the displays was intermittent. The flight director and the attitude heading reference systems (AHRS) #1 and #2 also went off-line. The engine parameters page on the engine indication and crew alerting system (EICAS) was empty, but the cautions page continued to load. The captain could not recall what cautions were posted, but said that there was no pattern to them.

While on approach to Atlantic City, the captain said the flight display screens returned to normal.

According to the first officer, he was flying the airplane. He said the first signs of electrical failures began when the autopilot disconnected, followed by the flight director. He said that his flight display screens never went blank, but were missing information. He saw a flight director fail warning light illuminated for a while, but it reset itself by the time they landed in Atlantic City. He said his attitude director indicator (ADI) turned blue. He also noticed there were red "x's" on the captain's displays for the flaps, ADC #1 and #2, airspeed and altitude. On the EICAS, the engine parameters page was empty, and he saw "empty shells and dashed lines." The caution page was full and continued to load. He said that he saw "lots" of 1's and 2's on the screen.

The first officer also said that due to the loss of flight display information, he flew the airplane on the stand-by instruments with the auto pilot off for the remainder of the flight. However, on approach into Atlantic City, he said the flight display screens had returned to normal.

A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspector performed an examination of the airplane on the evening of the incident. According to the inspector the airplane was towed to Mid Atlantic Jet fixed base operator. Atlantic Coast Airlines also dispatched two maintenance personnel to work on the airplane. The maintenance personnel performed a lightning strike inspection, partial airframe structural inspection, and a visual inspection for overheated wires and chaffing. All systems were checked with power on and both engines running. No discrepancies were noted during these checks.

The airplane was ferried to Dulles, Virginia, on May 4, 2002. One of the pilot's who ferried the airplane back to Virginia was the operator's supervisor of flight standards for the Dornier 328. According to the supervisor, the ferry flight was normal and there were no discrepancies noted with any of the airplane's flight

High-Speed Long Range Regional Jet

systems or display units.

Examination of maintenance records indicated that the de-ice and ice detection system were also examined after the occurrence with no discrepancies noted. Additionally, the airplane was checked for structural damage and no discrepancies were noted.

On May 29, 2002, an ACA flight crew reported a loss of flight display information and odor while in cruise flight on the same airplane, N429FJ. Examination of the airplane's flight log revealed that the captain reported multiple failures during the flight. These failures included several EICAS messages, and a loss of all data on the first officer's #2 multi-function display (MFD) screen and #2 primary flight display (PFD). The data on these screens was replaced with red "x's". Also, the autopilot disconnected. The captain reported that these messages lasted for approximately 2 minutes, during which time there was static heard on the #1 communication frequency. After 2 minutes, the EICAS messages cleared up except for the "ice detector fail" caution.

The airplane landed without incident at the intended destination.

The cockpit voice recorder, digital flight data recorder, DC Junction Box (1VE panel), and Bus Power Control Unit, and the #1and #2 integrated avionics computers were removed and retained by the Safety Board for further examination.

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